Loch Lomond Group - Category Manager

The Company

The Loch Lomond Group is an independent distiller and blender of some of the finest and rarest scotch whiskies in the world. Their heritage is amongst the oldest in the industry.

In 1814, the original site of the Loch Lomond distillery was established near Tarbet towards the north west end of Loch Lomond. In 1832, the Glen Scotia distillery was founded in Campbeltown and is one of only three distilleries remaining in Campbeltown from that era.

In March 2014 they acquired the Loch Lomond Distillery Company - and with it, a history which goes back to at least 1772 with the founding of the Littlemill distillery.

Their portfolio includes the Loch Lomond single malt, which is distilled and matured on the ‘bonnie banks’, and Glen Scotia, a Campbeltown malt from the Victorian ‘whisky capital of the world’, as well as several high quality blends. Each is a fine example of its region and style, redolent of the landscape and history which has shaped Scotland’s unique spirit.

Category Manager Introduction

The procurement function at Loch Lomond Group was established in 2022 and support an annual spend of £80 million. Loch Lomond Group are are a highly motivated customer-centric team of 5 people developing and implementing procurement strategy, to serve the needs of the business in partnership with stakeholders. They play a vital role in ensuring that the products and services our business needs are sourced competitively and available when we need them.

The role of the category manager has become more fluid in the way it delivers core procurement services, with increasing alignment to finance, supply chain and customer facing functions. The role is to develop flexible supply strategies and responsive operations informed by market data whilst proactively managing is an exceptional and rare opportunity for a highly experienced, qualified, Procurement Leader to join one of Scotland’s most successful and iconic brands in recent history.

Category Manager

Main Purpose of the Role

The Procurement function at Loch Lomond Group was established in 2022 and support an annual spend of £80 million. We are a highly motivated customer-centric team of 5 people developing and implementing procurement strategy, to serve the needs of the business in partnership with key stakeholders. We play a vital role in ensuring that the products and services our business needs are sourced competitively and available when we need them.

The role of the category manager has become more fluid in the way it delivers core procurement services, with increasing alignment to finance, supply chain and customer facing functions. The role is to develop flexible supply strategies and responsive operations informed by market data whilst proactively managing risk.

Key accountabilities/Tasks:

• Responsible for the development and implementation of packaging category strategies, ensuring they meet the needs of key stakeholders.
• Source, select and negotiate a supply base within areas of responsibility to meet current and future business requirements.
• Set budgets and demonstrate cost management, via trend analysis.
• Negotiate and implement Supplier Service Level Agreements to deliver best advantage to the Supply Chain.
• Lead cross functional teams during tender activities to achieve required result within quality, cost and lead time targets.
• Manage supplier performance in collaboration with internal stakeholders to ensure business needs are being met.
• Identify cost reduction initiatives and support implementation.
• Support delivery of Marketing and NPD projects

Organisation

Commercial:

• To deliver the financial budgets for procurement for the business.
• Spend analysis - collecting spend data; cleansing the data; categorizing the data; analysing it for the purpose of understanding spending trends and identifying saving opportunities.
• Undertake tender and price benchmarking activity
• To identify and follow through on the value engineering opportunities in line with agreed annual and pipeline targets.
• To demonstrate total cost control via analysis and report PPV discrepancies monthly identifying root cause and tracking trends.
• Develop and maintain cost basket tracking methodology.
• Weekly invoice review and approval.

Supplier Performance:

• Lead supplier quarterly business reviews (QBRs)
• Develop and deliver supplier improvement initiatives
• Contribute to the development and implementation of Supplier Performance Management
• Liaise with key stakeholders to further develop SLA’s to deliver best value to LLG

Requirements:

The successful candidate will possess the following attributes;

• Experienced FMCG Category Manager, with a proven track record of leading successfully at a senior level, covering both strategic and operational priorities.
• Part qualified/ Studying towards Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS).
• Advanced negotiation skills, which have been applied within Commercial business context.
• Strong business acumen with capability to influence and communicate effectively at all levels within the organisation & external partners.
• Proven ability to lead, develop and motivate a team and deliver through others.
• A determination to thrive in ambiguity and is able to adapt to changing business priorities.

Soft Skills:

• Collaborative in approach, with a proven track record of influencing and engaging senior subject matter experts/ stakeholders.
• Strong commercial management experience
• Ability to define opportunity pipelines as well as develop and execute commercial strategies
• Extensive interpersonal skills
• Resilient with strong sense of commercial acumen

Remuneration:

Loch Lomond Group look after their employees by offering a competitive salary and benefits package which includes;

• Salary dependent on experience
• Hybrid working
• Flexible benefits
• Life assurance
• Save as you earn scheme
• Staff sales discount
• Pension
• Annual salary review
• Ongoing professional development

Loch Lomond are an equal opportunities employer and happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments that may be needed for successful candidates with a disability, health or mental health condition.

Recruitment Process:

Initial *interviews will be with retained advisors JP Executive Search.

Client interviews will be with:

• First stage interviews with the Head of Procurement
• Second interviews, to be confirmed
• 3rd/Final stage to be confirmed

All 3rd party applicants will be passed to JP Executive Search for assessment.